RHEE DISCUSSES REFORM AT CHARTER CONFERENCE

San Diego 
Michelle Rhee, the former chancellor of schools in Washington, D.C., brought her controversial brand of reform to San Diego on Wednesday when she was featured as the keynote speaker at the California Charter Schools conference at the convention center.

Rhee is a champion of the school choice movement because she said it often gives options to students who are otherwise trapped into attending bad neighborhood schools.

Although many charter organizers see her as the unofficial spokeswoman for their cause, Rhee said many are surprised to learn she wants to shut some of them down for poor performance or mediocrity.

Charters “want me to advocate for them,” Rhee told the U-T San Diego editorial board before delivering her speech Wednesday. “When we talk about charter accountability, they get a little squeamish.”

Charters are independently operated, publicly funded schools that are exempt from some local and state education codes in exchange for their promise to raise student performance through often nontraditional methods.